The Lords of Tikal: Rulers of an Ancient Maya City

The ancient Maya capital of Tikal is located in the heartland of the Guatemalan rain forest. Occupied from about 800 b.c. to a.d. 800, it had at its peak a population of more than 100,000. Because of its strategic location, Tikal served as a center of trade and as an architectural style-setter for the central Peten region of the Maya Lowlands. The apogee of power and wealth was achieved under the reigns of three generations of the great Jaguar Claw clan, whose ruling lords--known as Hasaw Chan K'awil, Yik'in Chan K'awil, and Yax Ain--built the Great Temples that symbolize the character and individuality of the city. Some of these Great Temples served as mortuary structures, and the contents of the tombs hint at the richness of life as a lord of Tikal. Drawing upon more than twenty years of excavation and recent breakthroughs in the translation of Maya hieroglyphs, Peter Harrison offers a cogent, detailed summary of what is known to date of this romantic, mysterious city and its rulers.